The original Mr. Freeze coasters were supposed to go to Six Flags Astroworld and Six Flags Mid America. We had several teleconference with Premier Rides Astroworld had already upgraded the electrical transformers near the front mall area for the ride and site planning was underway. Six Flags over Texas board of directors threaten to leave the Six Flags system and take the Six Flags name due to a dispute with Time Warner. Mr. Freeze was sent to Six Flags over Texas and Astroworld receive Dungeon Drop in place. I had to fly to San Jose California to visit Paramount Great America for information on drop zone. Keep in mind minus the waterparks there where 8 Six Flags Park including the newly acquired Fiesta Texas. When Mr. Freeze opened after numerous delays some of us felt a little vindication because Six Flags over Texas was sort of like the whining kid holding it breath with the leave the system threat Time Warner sold Six Flags Theme Parks to Premier Parks for 2.2 billion and signed 50 year licensing agreement. It was like David buying Goliath and lots of changes happened from Premier Parks. I was an Astroworld Rides Specialist/Supervisor. I work at Astroworld from 1983 to 2005. My seniority required me to write all new ride operations manuals from 1992 until 2005 when the park closed. I still have all my back up files from those years.
To clarify your statements to anyone else reading, at the time Over Texas has a weird relationship where Six Flags managed them, but did not own them - sort of like the agreement the Mall of America had with Cedar Fair for years with the Park there, but Six Flags made the decisions on additions to Over Texas. It was a weird relationship because Over Texas could demand preferential treatment - as they did with Freeze - or else they'd risk losing them as a park, even if it didn't make as much business sense to put stuff there. ... And man, I'd love to see that ride stuff. I may have some fun stuff around here myself... Oh, and the video was about 90 percent accurate from my knowledge, as many of these videos are. Freeze was actually once announced to be coming to Great America, but I can't find the evidence online and I don't have it off. One thing to think about - in 1998, Time Warner had really been focused on the theming of Great America. The video missed the sensible spot to put Mr Freeze in the park where it was supposed to go... Also, Raging Bull was never a St Louis ride. The Raging Bull merch that was shown - which I have one of! - was produced in the mid 2000s. Maybe next time I dig it out, I'll find a copyright on it...
So interesting and cool. Great America is my home park, I can’t image us having a mr freeze lol. That would be awesome but I think I’d rather have maxx force.
@@XGaming1 I agree. I'd much rather have unique rides than clones. Even good clones. Plus while mr freeze is a good ride i would not trade raging bull for it.
Learning about changes Six Flags made during this time period is always interesting because we all know how the expansion went, but there's so many of those what if's that took place back then.
Sooooo. I’m 39 now but I worked at SFGA when I was 15 when the southwest territory was new. I’ll always remember them talking about getting Mr. Freeze and but we got giant drop. I’ll stick with what Great America did. Freeze is a fun ride but doesn’t fit it.
At least I was able to ride both coasters on *"BATMAN🦇ROBIN CHILLER"* before it was closed down. It truly hurts going to the park seeing this amazing coaster just sitting there collecting vegetation.
This is one of the issues I never understood with Six Flags parks. They built a lot of the same rides at every park. Had they spent time working on signature attractions; there would be more than just 5 flagship parks.
You noted that in 1997 Great America had 7 roller coasters, and you named them, but the commercial said it had 8 coasters. I remember asking park employees about that commercial back in the day because I only counted 7 and they were clueless. Eventually I understood that they were counting both of American Eagle's tracks as separate coasters.
I'm surprised you never once mentioned how Kingda Ka was originally ment for SFGAm, but they were denied the 460' height waver, so corporate sent it to the next park, SFGAdv. It's interesting to think, they have had multiple launch coasters cancelled, but we have seen them at other parks.
Huh, this is the first time I'm hearing about this, SFGAm is my home park and has been for almost 10 years now, any chance do you know where I can learn more about this?
This is really cool, my home park is SFOT and I do know the history of mr.freeze, but I didn’t know SFGA was going to get one too, and if it was going to be in the Yukon Territory that means maybe the clone wouldn’t be themed to mr.freeze and it would’ve been cool to see that.it’s very fascinating and hopefully we see more of this series 👍
Awesome video! I learned a lot of new stuff I had no idea about. I think it would be amazing if Great Adventure got a new Premier coaster, maybe something like West Coast Racers.
I never knew about this. SFGAM is my home park and I loved Mr.Freeze at SFSL. I would think that having a batman and mr freeze at both St Louis and Great America would make the parks a little too similar though
What I think would have happened (definitely wrong) 1. Iron Wolf would have never been removed, but instead converted to a floorless 2. At least one of these would never have been built: MaxxForce, V2, Deja Vu 3. American Eagle would have been RMC’d in the mid 2010s
Thanks for taking it a step further by talking about how getting Mr. Freeze would've impacted the coasters they built. It was interesting seeing how Mr. Freeze's presence would've made Deja Vu and V2 less likely, its impact on Raging Bull & Goliath and so on.
Oh wow I never knew my home Premier Coaster was originally going to GAM. Also fun fact: if you ride Runaway Mountain during Fright Fest or Holiday in the Park, you’ll find a Yeti animatronic that lets out a roar when you go around the final helix, and they also play halloween and Christmas themed music throughout.
Another great video as always! SFGAm is my home park and I’m personally glad this didn’t happen. I have not been on Mr. Freeze or Maxx Force, but I think it’s safe to say I’d rather have Maxx Force. And while Freeze probably has the better layout and launch, I think I would still take V2 over it. I find older premier restraints THE WORST. I’d rather take the re-ride ability even if it’s initial launch is nothing to scream over. I think Freeze would have done better at the park as the better ride with better capacity compared to V2, but then we wouldn’t have gotten Maxx... we’ll never know, and I know I have not ridden Maxx, but surely it’s the best of the 3 for me
@@ParkPros To be far, if we did, we probably would've missed out on some of parks top tier coasters like Maxx Force and Goliath. Even then, who knows what we could've gotten if we indeed did get a Mr. Freeze clone.
Great vid. Never heard this story before. Glad to see history turned out just the way it did though. I'll take the current lineup over any potential changes that Mr. Freeze's addition could have made.
Raging Bull got built because Jim Wintrode loved B&M, B&M loved Great America, and basically brokered the deal behind Six Flags back. Remember Wintrode bought their first coaster and their first invert.
Just saying, 2019 Six Flags didn't care that much about overlapping coasters, they opened West Coast Racers (a Premier launch coaster) in 2019* just a few years after Full Throttle (a Premier launch coaster).
Great America is my home park. I feel like we have a really solid line up and I don't know if a mr freeze coaster would fit. I rode mr freeze in st louis and while it's great I wouldn't want it at great America. I think max force and ragin bull are much better as giga and launch coasters. Both are unique and fun rides.
im still mad about shockwave giving way to superman, deja vu being gone, and im not too convinced that i love goliath or x flight. the 90s were really great for great america. I would love to have some say in my home park's future. My main criticism is that they barely ever add attractions, even flat rides, that aren't at the expense of another attraction. I think the relocation of the go-carts is poor use of land, and im frustrated that for such a busy park, they can't add a higher capacity/longer roller coaster with 3 trains. They went cheap with a single loading station for superman, and all major roller coasters since have the same issue. Half the parking lot is dedicated to a water park that is only functional 3 months a year. They really need to... Extend the main entrance gate to the roadway where parking tickets are issued. build a parking structure in the northernmost portion of the parking lot. be smart about how they rest of the land freed up from the main parking lot, and add a giga, a star flyer, a wonder woman lasso-type attraction. RMC American eagle. Intamin blitz coaster or premier dueling launch a la west coast racers where the boat/log rides are in yukon territory, or where the go carts/little dipper is, with an entrance by bucaneer battle. Move the little dipper to the new entrance midway extension so that the area in yukon territory that includes that as well as the go-cart track can become something else. stop building mild, short attractions with incredible ride systems and manufacturers when we are so close geographically to the Ohio parks that are absolutely killing it.
Cool video. Though on paper this entire concept seems like a stretch, the synopsis is convincing and the video is engaging. I think not having Mr. Freeze is for the best. SFGAm has a much better lineup than SFOT and especially SFStL with a B&M hyper, an RMC woodie, and an S&S air thrust launched coaster. SFStL ended up with two awesome woodies, but we all know how much SF takes care of wooden coasters. They haven't even gotten a Free Spin or Raptor yet. With that being said Mr. Freeze still kicjs ass, especially as Reverse Blast, and particularly the St. Louis version surrounded by the Rapids and isolated with its theming. I always thought they could fit a flat ride inside that giant overbank. I like those transitions but they remind me a little too much of Captain Midnight, personally I'd change it up a bit.
Considering premier rides were a pretty new company it’s good that the disaster of those new rides launching didn’t ruin the company and their relationship with six flags!
@@ParkPros Ah, alright. One more question: I've been searching for over an hour for the meeting agenda shown at 3:55. Google hasn't been giving me anything, nor has searching the records on the village of gurnee's website. Do you happen to remember where you got that screenshot?
So, I'm curious if anyone knows more about this, but I remember there was a 3D shark ride that was supposed to come to Six Flags Hurricane Harbor in Texas several years ago, but for some reason, I could never find anything more about it.
I wish SFGA got a Mr. Freeze instead of The Chiller. It probably would have still been standing today and could have been returned to other DC properties if not put into reverse like the others.
Great America is my home park. I love this park but Demon needs a major refurb. I can’t stand that ride as it gives me a major headache when I ride it. If I ever ride it on a trip, I save it for the later part of the day.
1997 is the worst year for the Batman and Robin movie due to the biggest flop at the box office, budget cuts, and money loss, along the Mr. Freeze and Batman and Robin: the Chiller launch coasters won't launch between 1997 and 1998 seasons